Deborah Ellis’s bestselling novel The Breadwinner, now available as a stunningly illustrated graphic novel.
This beautiful graphic-novel adaptation of The Breadwinner animated film tells the story of eleven-year-old Parvana, who must disguise herself as a boy to support her family during the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.
Parvana lives with her family in one room of a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital city. Parvana’s father — a history teacher until his school was bombed and his health destroyed — works from a blanket on the ground in the marketplace, reading letters for people who cannot read or write. One day, he is arrested for having forbidden books, and the family is left without someone who can earn money or even shop for food.
As conditions for the family grow desperate, only one solution emerges. Forbidden to earn money as a girl, Parvana must transform herself into a boy, and become the breadwinner.
Readers will want to linger over this powerful graphic novel with its striking art and inspiring story.
Key Text Features
speech bubbles
captions
historical note
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.1
Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7
Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).
Deborah Ellis’s bestselling novel The Breadwinner, now available as a stunningly illustrated graphic novel.
This beautiful graphic-novel adaptation of The Breadwinner animated film tells the story of eleven-year-old Parvana, who must disguise herself as a boy to support her family during the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.
Parvana lives with her family in one room of a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital city. Parvana’s father — a history teacher until his school was bombed and his health destroyed — works from a blanket on the ground in the marketplace, reading letters for people who cannot read or write. One day, he is arrested for having forbidden books, and the family is left without someone who can earn money or even shop for food.
As conditions for the family grow desperate, only one solution emerges. Forbidden to earn money as a girl, Parvana must transform herself into a boy, and become the breadwinner.
Readers will want to linger over this powerful graphic novel with its striking art and inspiring story.
Key Text Features
speech bubbles
captions
historical note
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.1
Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7
Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).
| Published By | Groundwood Books Ltd — Jan 1, 2018 |
| Specifications | 80 pages | 6.875 in x 10.0625 in |
| Keywords | girl hero; bravery; Afghanistan; Taliban rule; female protagonist; family and family issues; disguise; inspiring stories; oppression; war and conflict; courage; justice; perseverance; respect for others; responsibility; inferring; predicting; Common Core aligned; CC Literature Key Ideas and Details; CC Literature Integration of Knowledge and Ideas; grade 4; grade 5; Middle East Book Award; Peter Pan Prize; Hackmatack Award; graphic novel; speech bubbles; captions; historical note; Middle East; |
| Written By |
DEBORAH ELLIS is the author of The Breadwinner, which has been published in thirty languages. She has won the Governor General’s Award, the Middle East Book Award, the Peter Pan Prize, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award and the Vicky Metcalf Award. A recipient of the Order of Canada, Deborah has donated more than $2 million in royalties to organizations such as Right to Learn Afghanistan, Mental Health Without Borders and the UNHCR. She lives in Simcoe, Ontario. |
| Written By |
|
DEBORAH ELLIS is the author of The Breadwinner, which has been published in thirty languages. She has won the Governor General’s Award, the Middle East Book Award, the Peter Pan Prize, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award and the Vicky Metcalf Award. A recipient of the Order of Canada, Deborah has donated more than $2 million in royalties to organizations such as Right to Learn Afghanistan, Mental Health Without Borders and the UNHCR. She lives in Simcoe, Ontario. |
| Audience | ages 10 to 14 / grades 5 to 9 |
| Reading Levels |
Guided Reading Z
Lexile GN510L Fountas & Pinnel Text Level Z |
| Key Text Features | speech bubbles; captions; historical note |
| Common Core |
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.1
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7 |
All girls [should read] The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis.
” —Malala Yousafzai, New York Times“A great kids’ book … a graphic geopolitical brief that’s also a girl-power parable.” —Newsweek
“… an exceptional story that enlightens the reader about circumstances beyond comprehension and helps students understand that all of us in this global community share the same hopes, dreams, and fears.” —Resource Links
“[The books in the Breadwinner series] are terrifying indictments of what war can bring to children and a powerful testament to the ingenuity and strength of young people in times of terror.” —Book Links
“… a book … about the hard times — and the courage — of Afghan children.” —Washington Post